Get Home Bag, Walking and Life Update
We have been walking a lot lately. The weather is good now and it is a solid way to get out of the house and doing something. I do not recommend walking as a form of exercise unless you are A) elderly, B) recovering from a serious injury/ illness, C) crippled or D) seriously overweight and or out of shape and working towards running a la couch to 5k or a similar program. However that does not mean walking is not without benefits. Most of the benefits are not really physical. Getting outside and spending time with your family in the area you live in is a good thing. If somebody told me they walk as a form of exercise who did not fit the above categories I would try to coach them towards a better path, potentially with some mocking involved. If somebody told me they walk regularly to get outside and for active recovery from more strenuous workouts like running or rucking or for some additional low impact/ intensity cardio I would say that was a great plan.
My get home bag setup needs some work. The primary issue is that I really like my Tactical Tailor bag and use it regularly. I like that bag for the task but it can’t be in two places at once. This makes having it in the car with a variety of stuff loaded into it problematic. I have a couple of ideas. First a couple side pouches to hold 1 quart water bottles will help free up space in the main compartment for normal life stuff. (Regardless of what I do the bag needs this MOD anyway.) Second sooner or later I need to swap out that bag or get a replacement for normal everyday carry use. Something I have considered is putting most of the stuff that is in my GHB into something else like a wet weather bag or trash bag and then putting it into my TT pack if needed. Mostly this stuff is a full set of clothes with boots, socks, gloves and a hat. I keep this stuff in there because regularly I go on short trips in less than fully ideal clothing and the option to change into suitable clothes for walking is a good thing. I mulled this a lot but despite being an easy and ideal solution it came up short because while I carry the TT bag around a lot while using it as a normal bag it doesn’t ALWAYS MAKE IT INTO THE CAR. Inevitably the day I needed it is the day it would be in the hall closet. So the question is what to do. The short term answer is pretty much covered. I ordered a used medium ALICE pack awhile back for $10. It will be a very inexpensive solution and such will likely fit for awhile. Not as nice or comfortable but for $10 instead of $150 that is to be expected. Still a rugged bomb proof pack. Down the road a nice high end bag like the TT or something from Hill People Gear would be great in this role but I will not be able to justify the expense for awhile. Likely I would use the TT for a GHB and something a bit smaller for typical every day type use. Since I don’t see any traction on this for at least 6 months or more likely 12 there is some time to think about it.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Groups: An Open Discussion
-In the context of survivalism you could arguably break groups down into naturally occuring and intentional. The naturally occuring groups come from families, churches, groups of friends, etc that for whatever reason are spurred to become survivalists. The intentional groups are survivalists who in whatever way find eachother and seek to form groups with like minded individuals.
-It seems like both type of groups have advantages and disadvantages.
-Naturally occuring groups have the benefit of being made up of people you know and trust. This is huge to me. Maybe I have trust issues. However some folks seem to have shared information and trusted their lives based on relationships that to me are not sufficient for somebody to borrow my car, let alone watch Walker.
-On the downside in naturally occuring groups you have to deal with varied levels of motivation, skills and logistical stockpiles (or lack theiron) of folks you know. Getting somebody to take the leap from planning to come together in a bad scenario to implimenting a vigerous PT program, regularly conducting intentional training, building skills and stockpiling beans, bullets and bandaids is hard.
-Intentional groups of folks without a long background have the advantage that you can pick and choose. Find a mechanic if you need one or whatever. Also motivation and getting folks acting should be less of an issue than with naturally occuring groups.
-On the downside there is the trust issue. I talked about this a long time ago, beware there are dirty words that may offend some peoples fragile feelings. Also I seriously wonder about folks who plan to abandon their family and friends to throw in with a bunch of strangers. This sort of plan vastly underestimates the bonds and obligations that people have to family and good friends. Unless everybody involved is an orphan or their family lives thousands of miles away I suspect strap hanging family will be a serious issue for this sort of group. [ Any sort of group will need to have brutally harsh conversations about how to deal with this issue. Figuring out if you can/ how to feed and shelter people we love that can’t or more realistically won’t prepare for theirselves is a complicated topic. They would also be an issue for naturally occuring groups but since they tend to be family and friends anyway at least you are dealing with fewer families.]
-As to leadership and such I think naturally occuring groups have an advantage. Maybe there is already a Patriarch and things are simple or in other cases previously existing relationships have largely sorted theirselves out. Intentional groups seem inherantly full of chiefs and short of indians.
Anyway I am interested in what has worked well or poorly for you. Please let me know in the comments section.
Groups, Beginning Survivalism and My Generation
On the topic of groups my thoughts that apply here are prety simple. There are two broad ways you can expect to get invited into a group: if you have something to offer or have a close connection with the group. Close connections like family or long term friends are typically something you have or don’t.
An intentional survivalist group is not going to be interested just in your sparkling personality. They will want folks who bring something to the table. Typically if they are a group worth joining, they will want people with at least some basic skills, equipment and stuff. What is desirable to a given group will vary widely based on the group. A group that is formed around a bunch of ex Army buddies probably doesn’t need shooters but might need a medic or somebody with legit food production skills. A group with 2 doctors and 4 nurses doesn’t need an EMT but may really need somebody who could organize their security and lead individual as well as team/ squad training. A group that is really squared away logistically might be more able to sacrifice on your individual ‘stuff’ to get a healthy able bodied person with some decent but not amazing individual skills. I was in a situation like this for awhile. A friend was very logistically squared away but getting older and aweful short on ‘group’. For any chance at security they needed more shooters and for any chance at primative living they needed healthy younger folks. We would have obviously brought everything we could but showing up with just the clothes on our backs would have increased their chances for survival.
As to beginning survivalism. My observation is that age (assuming you are over 21 and thus able to buy guns, etc) is not the biggest factor or even on the list. Time one has been seriously preparing (we could make this a matter of degree but lets keep it simple) and discretionary income available are what matters. A 26 year old who has been seriously into survivalism for 5 years with X discretionary income will be better prepared than a 50 year old who has been into it for 2 years with a disposable income of 1/2X.
However as to my generation they have had less adult time to prepare than older folks due to age and typically their incomes, and correspondingly discretionary income, are lower than older folks. The answer on how to get going is simple though.
Figure out what you can afford and buy something you need at regular intervals. TEOTWAWKI Blog is running a $40 a week series that would fit this situation well. Almost all 20 somethings have some flexibility. Most can cut their lifestyle a little bit or figure out how to earn a little more money without doing anything extreme.
While getting your gear together work on skills. Make a list of skills you might need and look at the ones you have then work to close the gap between the two. Find a group or take a class or give somebody you know a call. Start Geocaching or going on day hikes. Join a backpacking group or attend an Appleseed. Learn to build and fix things.
As you do these things look at your area’s vulnerabilities as well as what is worrying you. Start to come up with plans for probable events like a Hurricane on the gulf coast or an earth quake in California. As you get further along pay some attention to the Black Swan’s like an EMP or whatever.
Anyway those are my thoughts on that. Yours are of course welcome.
No Post: On Vacation
Big Life Update: Fireteam TOR Almost Complete
It is bitterly ironic to me that people who have their stuff together and want to have kids so often have huge problems but folks who really don’t want to have them do it on accident. I know a couple who had a heck of a time with their first kid and have been trying to have another for about 2 years. On the other hand folks in a dysfunctional situation with the wrong person can have unprotected sex one time and get knocked up. Thankfully we are very awesome lucky in this area so it isn’t an issue. (Clearly this is a testimant to my strength and machismo;)
Anyway that is what is going on with us.
Why Women Still Can’t Have It All?
I have touched on this before but the thing is that you have to make choices about how to spend your time and energy. Women expect, and are expected, to do more with their kids than men. Our culture tends to expect or at least accept that men will give some in this area to provide for the family. While our pressures are different the larger issue is still present for men. If I spend 2 more hours at work a day and a third (above what I do now) exercising I would do better at my job which would in time be a factor in my career. The thing is that means I would be around Wifey and kiddo for 2-3 hours less a day which is not acceptable to me. That is a choice I have knowingly made.
Beyond the work vs family debate the issue can be seen all over. Factor out some time to sleep, eat, do hygiene, etc and you are probably looking at about 16 available hours. Figure that half or a bit more goes to whatever you do to make money 5-6 days a week and you probably have 6-7 hours left.
A woman or man who chooses to spend another hour at work is by default not choosing to spend that hour in any number of other ways. That means they are a bit less of a spouse, parent or friend or aren’t as good at their hobby or well read or well rested. One only has enough time, energy and money to do so much. You don’t see tournament Jui Jitsu fighters who also are competitive marathon runners and 3 gun shooters that play a wicked game of bridge and are in bowling, softball and pool leagues. These folks who already don’t exist certainly are not high powered professionals or business owners who have great active relationships with their spouses and children.
What is right or wrong for an individual, their family and their life is a complicated matter without clear cut answers. That being said I would say family will be there in 40 years when you are old and grey while a job, sport or a hobby will not. Also as cliche as it is you can’t take money or stuff with you when you go.
So You Wanna Be a G?
For no particular reason I can think of this topic interests me today. Maybe it is the fact that a capable survivalist and a potential guerilla are both grounded in the same basic skills, I don’t know. In any case I got to thinking about the sort of skills and capabilities and logistics one needs to develop in order to be a reasonably viable potential guerilla.
#1 Physical Fitness. I should not have to explain why this is really important. There is no way you are going to be able to fight anybody unless you are in some resemblance of decent physical shape. One of the funniest moments I can recall on this part of the web was when a man who could only be described as morbidly obese talked about how he plans to overwhelm (whoever it was) with “hit and run tactics”. His fat ass couldn’t hit and run the 2 blocks from his usual super sized ultra McFatty lunch at McDonalds to Baskin and Robbins for a post lunch milkshake; let alone outrun a bunch of 18-25 year old’s who run multiple times a week, if not daily. Physical fitness or a lack theirof goes a long way towards establishing legitimacy as a potential or actual guerilla/ partisan or lack theirof. There is a sort of running joke that a militia is a bunch of fat guys sitting around calling each other Colonel. If I was a slightly different person with a very different life looking to join some sort of group and I got there to see they made group buys of extra extra fat multicam uniforms/ body armor/ chest rigs I would do a quick 180 and move on.
Aside from being a foundation for everything a tactical athlete such as soldier or guerilla does the reason I put physical fitness as number #1 is that it takes a long time to develop. There are no shortcuts. Physical fitness is truly a slow cooker concept requiring consistent, if not perfect, effort over months and even years. If you spend a week and a half or so at a premier tactical school you can become pretty good with a pistol and a rifle and probably learn some basic tactics. In a day you could buy a good pistol and rifle, as well as a .22, a shotgun, a “precision rifle”, body armor, night vision, a chest rig, a ruck and camping gear, cases of ammo and boxes of mags as well as a years worth of food for your family. It would be a heck of a bill that very few people can afford but it could strictly speaking be done. Physical fitness does not work that way. There is no rush turkey fried/ pressure cooker way to significantly speed it up. When you realize that you need physical fitness there is unfortunately no way you can develop it in a manner timely enough to be useful.
That means you have to start yesterday. If you are too heavy then stop eating junk and have some discipline with portions. Start walking until you can work in some short jogs. Jog a telephone pole/ 100 steps/ a block then walk one. After a bit jog 2 and walk 1. Eventually cut out the walking from all but the longest runs. Take that backpack you bought and fill it with stuff then walk around. Do body weight exercises and lift stuff. In a slow and progressive manner add reps and sets to the body weight stuff and a few pounds at a time to the lifts.
#2 Build basic skills. Learn to shoot. Learn first aid and CPR. Learn some basic camping skills like starting fires, cooking over fires or backpacking stoves, building a shelter, land navigation etc all.
#3 Acquire basic weapons and equipment. We could talk about this one for a dozen blog posts but let’s not get bogged down. Buy a fighting rifle and pistol. Get a setup to carry mags and ancillary stuff. At least one .22 is very useful and if you can afford it a shotgun and some sort of scoped precision type rifle are nice to have. Obviously you need plenty of ammo, mags and some prone to fail spare parts. Get sufficient wet and cold weather clothing, gloves, boots and headgear to operate in your region during the worst it has to offer. Get basic camping gear like a backpack/ rucksack, a sleeping bag, some sort of shelter like a bivy or tent, a water filter and all the little stuff in between.
#4 Acquire food, fuel, batteries and other logistical necessities. It is highly unlikely that you will be able to play Guerilla all day long then run out for a pepperoni pizza and a 6 pack of tall boys. If you are worried about running to the hills to play Red Dawn then it would be prudent to have a bunch of food, medical supplies, batteries and some fuel set aside to meet those needs. Also the kind of times when fairly normal folks are shooting at some sort of organized group are chaotic enough that even if you are not a G normal commerce will likely be disrupted.
Once you have this stuff it is prudent to put some consideration into where and how it will be stored. Unlike somebody with a more survivalist outlook your plan is probably not to stay at home (or your alternate location). If things are bad enough that you are playing G a basement full of food, while a great thing to have, may not cut it. Particularly if you have to leave in a hurry be it in a car or on foot having all your stuff in one place is problematic. Having some stuff at your home, more at some sort of bug out location/ basecamp and the rest in a couple caches around the area you plan to operate in is a much better answer.
#5 Build better skills. This was almost part of #2. The reason it is not is that while it is absolutely true that people are more important than stuff without some basic stuff it is pretty hard to do much of anything. I am pretty confident about the outcome of a gunfight between my boringly average self and just about anybody if I have a gun and they do not. If a guerilla war went on long enough there would be some extra stuff floating around but for awhile (and much more so without a convenient outside benefactor) things would be aweful tight. I would not say that a man without a rifle (and all the support stuff he needs) is exactly useless but he is a lot less useful than another shooter. In Afghanistan early on the Muj had to turn away volunteers who did not have weapons because they couldn’t arm them. Now is the time to look at filling holes in your skillset’s. Anyway…..
Getting some sort of professional firearms training from a fighting oriented school is an aweful good idea if you can possibly afford it. Medical skills are pretty darn important too. The new TC3 training and it’s associated spinoffs are very worthwhile quality training.
#6 Find some friends. The whole lone wolf/ Rambo/ Chuck Norris/ Arnold one man army of death and destruction thing makes for a great action movie but that doesn’t translate to real life. You need friends who are like minded and can work with you toward some sort of common goals. A sniper needs or at least can really use a spotter and local security. It is pretty hard to ambush a group by yourself, at most you can probably harrass them. Everybody needs somebody to pull security while they sleep and watch their 6 o’clock or help them should they get injured.
#7 Train with your new friends. People without an understanding of basic individual and team movement tactics as well as squad and platoon sized operations likely greatly outnumber those with an understanding of these things in most groups. If you somehow happen to have folks with meaningful experiences in these areas you all need to get onto the same page. Some of the most tragic accidents in military history come from ad hoc groups of otherwise trained individuals working together. If Bob zigs when Jim think he is going to zag or Tom is halfway down the wall when Rob thinks he should be at the corner people get shot. Training together will get everybody onto the same page, work out the kinks and build group cohesion.
#8 Develop plans. Based on your area, the local players and whatever sort of worst case scenario you guys see happening you can start to plan. Like any fight eventually it takes on a life of it’s own but right away having a plan is priceless. Also the process of developing a plan leads you to see all sorts of interesting stuff like specific training or equipment or other preparations that should be made. Obviously doing things like making explosives or breaking federal firearms laws would be pretty foolish. However you can do all sorts of other stuff. Walk the terrain in your area to confirm or deny what map recon tells you. If you wonder how long it takes to move from Anderson butte to the ridgeline above Highway 25 then pack a lunch and go find out. If you wonder whether Deer Creek can be crossed on foot during the spring runoff go find out.
#9 Take advantage of your group’s purchasing power. Make group buys to save money. I suspect if you call a school and ask them what kind of discount you get for filling the whole class they will work with you. Depending on your group dynamics consider the purchase of expensive or specialized equipment that is not practical for an individual but make sense for a group. Take advantage of the economics of scale which can be achieved. Renting a piece of specialized equipment you will only need for a short time is much more affordable if several folks can use it during the minimum time.
#10 Develop those around you. Some discretion is essential here but the more prepared that your extended family, friends and buddies are the better. Also a few may go whole hog into it and become assets. Also this is a great place to find and develop useful folks who could fill a more auxillary type role.
Note: One and two should be done successively as in one after another. You need to get started in physical fitness today (though you can pursue other things while developing your fitness) and work on basic skills until that requirement has been satisfied. They are really the basis for everything else. Three and four should probably be worked together. Six could really be done whenever but obviously has to be done before seven. The rest are somewhat more flexible, just use common sense.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
Even stranger to me are folks who have goals but absolutely no drive to do anything towards them. This group is probably more common than the previous group who do not seem to have any goals. Most folks have goals, even if they do nothing towards them. I don’t really get this. No matter where one is in life I have a hard time seeing how somebody would not want to improve their situation. Maybe it is about upbringing and a sense of work ethic/ motivation but I want to be in a better place next week/month/ year than I am today. Since nobody is going to do that but me I had better do something about it. The apathy towards their lives that I see in some folks saddens me.
Liberty is a concept that I have been thinking about recently. Arctic Patriot who arguably should be renamed Far Northern Plains Patriot in light of his recent move back to the lower 48 got me onto this train of thought. To me liberty in the most basic sense is that I can do what I want unless it hurts somebody else. It means I can live, pray, eat, drink and spend however I want. If I want to get some land and turn it into a redneckeriffic junk yard that is my business. If I want to live in a tent or a teepee it is my business. If I want to buy something and another person wants to sell it, or give/ receive loans on whatever terms then I fail to see why that is anyone else’s affair. So long as everybody involved is an adult and willing game on for whatever. I think you get the idea. Most folks who read this blog agree to these basic concepts.
Where the whole thing goes to heck in a handbasket is that by basic common sense if I get to do whatever I want that doesn’t hurt anybody other folks get to do the same. Many people think that whatever they do is just great but somehow what other folks do is bad. This is fine and good. Lots of folks do in fact make choices which are stupid. Where things get problematic to me is when people try to tell other folks what to do. Obviously we need some laws to punish folks who hurt other people, steal, etc. We also need laws to prevent people from doing really dangerous things that clearly endanger others like say driving a hundred miles an hour in front of a school with a handgun shooting at road signs.
However to say that you are free to grow corn in your front yard but the neighbor shouldn’t be able to have a car he has been meaning to restore up on blocks is, in my humble opinion hypocritical. To say you should be able to homeschool your kids but the neighbor shouldn’t be able to enter into a mutually agreeable contract is hypocritical. To say you should be able to sell raw milk but the neighbor shouldn’t be able to grow a little pot is IMO hypocritical. I could go on but you probably get the point.
In particular I have an isssue with people trying to force their values onto others. This is particularly prevalent in some socially conservative circles where people may even claim to be liberterians. Most of these folks are good, decent people and even well meaning. The thing is that their pastor/ decon/ priest/ whatever has absolutely no right to tell me what to do. They can (and very arguably should) try to convince people of the value of good traditional ways to live. However I see attempting to use the force of law to compel people to act a certain way as equally unacccepable from conservative’s as communists or statists. Promoting your views by selling them to people is great, voting with your paycheck and feet is fine too but forcing folks to live your way is just wrong.
As to the pursuit of happiness. I wish that I had some great answers. The best I can say is to stop worrying about what other people think and do what you enjoy. Also be sure to plan some time in your schedule, and if possible a few bucks too, that can go towards whatever it is that gives you joy.
Hope you all have a great Saturday
Toddler on the Computer
Memorial Day Weekend
We would have gone someplace this weekend but with my lingering illness it didn’t seem smart. I am feeling decent and all but things can happen and I don’t want to go to the hospital in some random country. It turns out to be for the best I think. It has been a very quiet weekend which is a good thing.
I don’t know exactly why but I have been a crazy machine of productivity this weekend. Like the 1950’s stay at home mom who had 5 cups of coffee and a handfull of uppers that cleans the whole house, organizes the garage, weeds the garden, makes a beautiful dinner for the family and does 57 projects before hubby comes home. Well except it is not the 50’s, I am not a woman or on drugs. Anyway my point is that I have been really productive.
I cleaned the floors and reorganized the kitchen. A bunch of stuff that should have been in storage got moved there and junk got tossed. More cleaning occured in closets and other storage places. This included the kitchen closet which has been a black hole of chaos and unhappiness in our home. Our vehicle got cleaned out, vaccumed and organized.
We went shopping for some odds and ends. I didn’t plan to get anything else but went through the usual aisles (outdoor, tools, etc) anyway. Inventory changes sporatically and sometimes sales come up. I saw 3 D cell Mag Lights for $13 and picked up a few.
Over the weekend I found a slightly used (marker and a bit of paint on it but totally functional) generic rubbermaid type tub. These bins are one of those weird things for me. I have it in my head that they are really expensive when they aren’t. Well some of them aren’t anyway. The one I got costs about $8 new. A half dozen tubs worth $60 would probably fix a lot of problems and maybe even change my life as I know it. It is pretty dumb I guess.
We keep the usual sort of stuff in our vehicle: kid things, a first aid kit, warning triangles, jumper cables, some tools, jackets, socks and boots for me (I habitually wear comfortable/ nonpractical footwear and am not changing), a blanket, etc. Anyway since I got the junk out I wanted to get everything organized. Prior to now everything has been just floating around. I cleaned out the tub and got it ready to use. Since our sweet free tub is kind of big I added some more tools, a bag with some spare batteries, one of the new mag lights and some other things. Anyway now everything is nicely organized and neat which is pretty nice.
No big plans for tomorrow. Another quiet day and probably some stuff with the kid. Going to try and tie up some loose ends around the house before going back to work. If I feel motivated there are a couple closets that it would be nice to get taken care of.
Anyway I am happy with the progress this weekend. Getting things done that have been bothering me is a good feeling. We have also had some pretty nice family time. It has been really nice.
I hope you have a great weekend. Relax and enjoy some time with friends and family. If you are so inclined try to get some productive things done.
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